Abstract

In this chapter, how medical thermography can be utilized as early detection technique for breast cancer with fuzzy logic is explained. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women. This fact justifies researches to reach early diagnosis, improving patients' life expectancies. Moreover, there are other pathologies, such as cysts and benign neoplasms, that deserve investigation. In the last ten years, the infrared thermography has shown to be a promising technique to early diagnosis of breast pathologies. Works on this subject presented results that justify the thermography as a complementary exam to detect breast diseases. Various algorithms that can be utilized for Breast Cancer diagnosis utilizing medical thermography are listed and also the advantages of medical thermography over other imaging modalities is given.

Introduction

Breast cancer can be defined as a cancerous growth that inhabits the tissues in the breast where they produce milk for infant nutrition. In this type of cancer, the cells in the breast region grow abnormally and in an uncontrolled way. Breast Cancer has become one of the most horrifying experiences in today’s women’s health. The incidence of breast cancer in India is on the rise and is rapidly becoming the number one cancer in females. India accounts for nearly six percent of deaths due to breast cancer in the world. One out of every 22 women in India is diagnosed with breast cancer (Pragati, 2012).

Early breast cancer detection, is one of the most important areas that researchers are working on, and it can increase the rate of diagnosis, cure and survival of the affected women. Considering the high cost of treatment as well as the high prevalence of the disease among women, early diagnosis will be the most significant step in reducing the health and social complications of this disease. Mammography is recognized as the standard method of diagnosing breast cancer. Infrared Thermography based cancer diagnosis is able to detect cancer in its early stage of development and progression, thus longer survival is possible (William, 2003) Thermal (Or infrared) radiation emission from human body will be higher around the regions where an anomaly such as tumor is present inside the body due to:

Angiogenesis: A cancer tumor starving for nutrients produces a chemical that promotes the development of blood vessels that supply the tumor and also causes normal blood vessels to dilate to provide more blood in tumor growth. (Debi et al., 2012).

There are many different methods to detect breast cancer, with different advantages and disadvantages (Pragati et al., 2012), (William, 2003). Some of these methods are mentioned as follows: